How to Have a Vacation on a Budget

Just because you don't have a lot of money shouldn't stop you from getting together and planning yourselves a romantic and cheap holiday for you and your spouse. With the way the economy is shouldn't keep you from getting away and enjoying each others company. After all, you've worked hard and you've earned, even if you can't afford something extravagant, you still need to treat yourselves on occasion.

One of the first things you can do is to search online for different deals that might be available. Some good sites to search on are travelzoo.com, kayak.com or hotwire.com. Some sites like travelzoo even have special getaway rates that are offered on a weekly special basis. They can also help you find places in a pinch and for very low rates. A lot of the deals they offer you will include the airfare and the accommodations.

Even your budget is simply to stretched that you can't even afford to leave town, don't fret. Why not sit down and plan a wonderful evening at home. Take time out for each other. Go out and buy your favorite meal, decorate with flower petals, roses, candles, your favorite wine and turn off the phones and play your favorite music. If you have a fireplace and it's not too warm outside, why not pack a picnic type dinner and serve the meal in front of the fireplace. Make the foods easy to eat by turning them into finger foods that you can lazily munch on while lying cozy together in front of the fire.

Something that might sound a little weird to some people might be a camp out in your own backyard. But it can be something fun to do with your spouse. Simply set up your tent in your backyard, and don't cheat. Use all of your camping stuff and cook your meals outdoors, set up the camp chairs, do the whole deal, only difference you're doing it in the privacy of your own backyard. Then pretend you are a tourist in your own town and go for an outing to somewhere you've not been before in your own town. Even take pictures of your experience to give it a more vacation like feeling.

Find a book that includes places that are in your area or state. Make it more interesting if it's one of fiction but includes factual information about these areas. Then after you've read the book together go and find these places that were written about in the book. See how close the author was in describing these places and imagine you are his characters in the book.

Take time out to visit your local museums and different specialty shops. A lot of times when we live somewhere we tend to take things for granted and we never go and see the things that tourists come to see when they are on vacation. So pretend you are a tourist and go see all of those things you've been missing all the time you've lived there.